Waste Management and Minimisation Plan

Wellington Region Waste Management and Minimisation Plan 2017-2043

On 9 August 2017 the Upper Hutt City Council adopted the Wellington Region Waste Management and Minimisation Plan 2017–2023 (WMMP).

The WMMP was reviewed during 2016-2017 and Council consulted with the community on the draft WMMP in March-April 2017.

The WMMP contains a regional target, regional actions (for all the region’s councils to work towards) and a local action plan for Upper Hutt (pages 70 – 76).

Use the link on the right to view the Wellington Region WMMP.

Why do we need a plan

Under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 (the Act) all councils are required to develop a Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP) by 2012.

The Act requires each WMMP to contain a summary of the council’s objectives, policies, methods and funding to “achieve effective and efficient waste management and minimisation within the territorial authority’s district.”

To achieve efficiency and scale (where possible), the nine councils of Wellington region have delivered a joint WMMP that contains both local and joint regional actions.

These actions are supported by funding from the waste levy which is administered by the Ministry of the Environment.

What’s in the plan

The Wellington Region Waste Assessment completed in 2016 showed we can all improve on our waste management and minimisation performance. The assessment highlighted that we are throwing out an increasing amount of waste, which ends up in our landfills.The WMMP is the regional plan that guides the actions we can take to be ‘waste-free together’.

It sets a primary regional target to reduce the total quantity of waste sent to landfills by one third over the next 10 years.

Local and regional actions have been identified to work toward the primary regional target.

For Upper Hutt’s local action plan, have a look at pages 70 – 76 of the WMMP.

For the regional actions, have a look at pages 29 – 34 of the WMMP.

The actions will be spread over the six-year life of the plan, but may take longer to complete. In some cases, the actions will continue work already underway. Others involve investigating opportunities before making a commitment to them.

The actions range from supporting waste reduction at local events to investigating options for increasing recycling participation rates.

Any significant proposals to change levels of service delivery would require further public consultation and will need to consider the impacts on local communities – including costs to households and the impact of change on the regional target. These decisions will happen via Council’s Long Term Plan and Annual Plan processes.